By Lambert Strether of Corrente

Chicken Track of the Day

Catbirds are within the Mimidae specie (!), like mockingbird and thrashers. Readers have stated they just like the mimicry, so hopefully MacCaulay Library has sufficient recordings to maintain us all happy, not less than for a time.

Black Catbird, CADO & STCU Alley, Chital Space, Louisville, Corozal, Belize.

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In Case You Would possibly Miss…

  1. Kamala’s stint at McDonalds: Truth or fiction?
  2. Kennedy on wholesome meals, and on the setting.
  3. Part 230 choice: “The enterprise mannequin of Massive Tech is over.”

* * *

Politics

“So lots of the social reactions that strike us as psychological are actually a rational administration of symbolic capital.” –Pierre Bourdieu, Classification Struggles

* * *

2024

Lower than 100 days to go!

Friday’s RCP Poll Averages:

Good news for Trump in that last week’s deterioration seems to have been slowed, although we shall have to see if Kamala gets a convention “bounce.” Remember, however, that all the fluctuations — in fact, all the leads — are within the margin of error. If you read most of the press, you’d think Kamala has this race in the bag. It’s not so. Do note, however, Trump’s deterioration in North Carolina: +2.4 last week to +0.9 this week, when OG pollster Sabato moved it to “toss-up” status from “lean Republican.” No wonder Trump held a rally there this week. NOTE With Kennedy, it would seem, about to drop out, I started tracking the national percentage as “Top Battlegrounds,” where Trump’s shrinking lead is +0.1 this week (as opposed to “5-Way RCP Average, where Harris led by +1.1 last week).

* * *

Kamala (D): “After Chicago: The Challenge Facing Harris” [The Nation]. The deck: “Will she demonstrate clearly why she’s the true champion of working people?” • No.

Kamala (D):

I learn the Washington Free Beacon story prime and backside (and it offers me no pleasure to say that). Apart from being good oppo, I believed it was a strong piece of reporting (and it offers me no pleasure to say that). Readers, are you able to poke any holes within the story?

* * *

Trump (R): “Donald Trump lists the questions CNN should ask Kamala Harris in her first interview because the Democratic candidate” [Daily Mail]. “When she lastly sits for her first interview since turning into the Democratic nominee, Kamala Harris should clarify why she has flip-flopped on so many insurance policies, why she has executed nothing to safe the southern border whereas in energy, and why she wants a human protect alongside her, in keeping with one avid viewer of tv information, former President Donald J. Trump…. On the prime of his checklist: What’s she hiding from? ‘Why isn’t it reside? It’s not a reside interview,’ he stated. ‘It’s an interview that’s going to be taped after which edited after which put out. In order that’s not even an interview.’” • He’s not incorrect, is he? The Day by day Mail interviewed Trump at Mar-a-Lago:

Holy moley, that’s an terrible dangerous case of Empire-in-Decay decor. How preferable the elegant, youthful simplicity of Obama and Kamala’s tan fits. From this morning as soon as extra:

* * *

Kennedy (R): A Republican operative:

However, is Kennedy so incorrect?

And is that this so incorrect?

After all, we don’t truly know from what place Kennedy would reviving that consensus within the subsequent Trump administration”

* * *

“The (Electoral) Politics of Age Gaps” [Crooked Timber]. “Regardless of being a Boomer, you might have observed that [Kamala’s] the younger, thrilling candidate…. Biden and Trump are actually fairly previous…. It’s our electoral establishments trigger the US to have such astronomically previous leaders. The 2-party system, lax marketing campaign and particularly marketing campaign finance legal guidelines, and the first system tilt the method closely in favor of individuals with time, cash and political curiosity — which, in our society, tends to be older folks. Mix this with the Child Increase and also you get the present scenario, taking part in out in sluggish movement, a demographic wave not crashing however seeping into and drowning our politics. It’s telling that the one method our establishments averted replicating their errors was by a catastrophic failure. How can a youthful politician win a main on this system? They will’t! Harris turned the nominee not by profitable the first however by default.” • By default? Is that this dude kidding? Since when is coronation the default in a putatively democratic society?

Realignment and Legitimacy

“Democrats and Republicans greet Covid spike with a collective shrug” [Poltico]. A tranche of one million corpses, and all they will achieve this shrug. To be truthful, Trump can’t take credit score for Operation Warp Velocity due to the anti-vax dogmatists in his base (together with Kennedy), and Biden can’t take credit score for any as an alternative of an enormously efficiently public relations effort that destroyed the creditibility of public well being as a perfect. Biden may also take credit score for by no means giving Trump credit score for the vaccines he wager the farm on along with his “vax-only” technique — a Trump legacy Biden promptly squandered. No surprise they’re silent. Extra: “‘Voters don’t prefer it being introduced up in any respect,’ stated Celinda Lake, a Democratic strategist and pollster for Biden’s 2020 marketing campaign, who marveled on the near-total absence of masks at a Democratic conference the place roughly 20,000 folks crammed into Chicago’s United Heart for every week. ‘They wish to recover from it.’” • Ah, a Celinda Lake. She was the pollster who left “Medicare for All” off a voter survey on well being care coverage in Maine, till activists pressured her so as to add itMR SUBLIMINAL Not that I’m one to harbor a grudge‘These poeple. And: “”For most individuals, Covid is much less about getting an an infection and extra a few time frame when our lives have been tremendous disrupted — and that’s behind us,” stated Ashish Jha, the Biden White Home’s former Covid response coordinator. “We do nonetheless have a public well being drawback, however it’s now not in any method a substantive societal drawback.’” • What a psycho Jha is. In what method is Lengthy Covid not a “substantive societal drawback”? To not point out the more and more seen lack of govt operate on a mass foundation.

Syndemics

“I’m in earnest — I cannot equivocate — I cannot excuse — I cannot retreat a single inch — AND I WILL BE HEARD.” –William Lloyd Garrison

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Covid Sources, United States (Nationwide): Transmission (CDC); Wastewater (CDC, Biobot; consists of many counties; Wastewater Scan, consists of drilldown by zip); Variants (CDC; Walgreens); “Iowa COVID-19 Tracker” (in IA, however nationwide information). “An infection Management, Emergency Administration, Security, and Normal Ideas” (particularly on hospitalization by metropolis).

Lambert right here: Readers, thanks for the collective effort. To replace any entry, do be happy to contact me on the tackle given with the vegetation. Please put “COVID” within the topic line. Thanks!

Sources, United States (Native): AK (dashboard); AL (dashboard); AR (dashboard); AZ (dashboard); CA (dashboard; Marin, dashboard; Stanford, wastewater; Oakland, wastewater); CO (dashboard; wastewater); CT (dashboard); DE (dashboard); FL (wastewater); GA (wastewater); HI (dashboard); IA (wastewater studies); ID (dashboard, Boise; dashboard, wastewater, Central Idaho; wastewater, Coeur d’Alene; dashboard, Spokane County); IL (wastewater); IN (dashboard); KS (dashboard; wastewater, Lawrence); KY (dashboard, Louisville); LA (dashboard); MA (wastewater); MD (dashboard); ME (dashboard); MI (wastewater; wastewater); MN (dashboard); MO (wastewater); MS (dashboard); MT (dashboard); NC (dashboard); ND (dashboard; wastewater); NE (dashboard); NH (wastewater); NJ (dashboard); NM (dashboard); NV (dashboard; wastewater, Southern NV); NY (dashboard); OH (dashboard); OK (dashboard); OR (dashboard); PA (dashboard); RI (dashboard); SC (dashboard); SD (dashboard); TN (dashboard); TX (dashboard); UT (wastewater); VA (dashboard); VT (dashboard); WA (dashboard; dashboard); WI (wastewater); WV (wastewater); WY (wastewater).

Sources, Canada (Nationwide): Wastewater (Authorities of Canada).

Sources, Canada (Provincial): ON (wastewater); QC (les eaux usées); BC (wastewater); BC, Vancouver (wastewater).

Hat tricks to useful readers: Alexis, anon (2), Art_DogCT, B24S, CanCyn, ChiGal, Chuck L, Festoonic, FM, FreeMarketApologist (4), Gumbo, hop2it, JB, JEHR, JF, JL Joe, John, JM (10), JustAnotherVolunteer, JW, KatieBird, KF, LL, Michael King, KF, LaRuse, mrsyk, MT, MT_Wild, otisyves, Petal (6), RK (2), RL, RM, Rod, sq. coats (11), tennesseewaltzer, Tom B., Utah, Bob White (3).

Keep secure on the market!

* * *

Maskstravaganza

“Depart These Children Alone” [John Snow Project]. “Replace mask with turban, hijab, crucifix or Star of David and see how you feel about the victimized child and the people who’ve been bullying them. Talk to members of the COVID-safe community and you’ll understand that this sort of bullying is commonplace…. The ignorant among us believe infection is a good thing, that it trains the immune system and makes us stronger. We’ve previously written about the error of this belief9. If infection made us stronger, the areas of the world that have the most disease would have the best population health and life expectancy. The opposite is true… Instead of bullying a child strong enough to be the only person wearing a mask in school, those being cruel should show some humility and confront the possibility the child might be better informed about human health or have private reasons for continuing to be cautious. Public health bodies and public institutions should do more to protect personal choice and prevent bullying and stigmatization for masking. After all, we are living in a world of individual responsibility and an individual should not be penalized for choosing to be responsible.” • For example:

Sequelae: Covid

“Does Lengthy COVID Result in Alzheimer’s? A New Examine Took an Surprising Flip” [Being Patient]. “The researchers checked out a bunch of individuals from COVID restoration clinics, evaluating 100 with none cognitive complaints, 79 who had irregular outcomes on a cognitive evaluation indicating cognitive impairment, and 57 who complained about cognitive points regardless that they scored usually on a cognitive take a look at. Hu and his colleagues took cerebrospinal fluid and blood from each teams of individuals with cognitive complaints to measure protein biomarkers and have a look at what genes the immune cells are turning on or off to see whether or not there was an overlap with Alzheimer’s illness. ‘We didn’t discover vital numbers of individuals with Alzheimer’s illness markers within the cerebrospinal fluid,’ Hu stated. ‘The numerous molecular pathways being lively in Lengthy COVID don’t correspond to Alzheimer’s illness.’ However 9 months after the preliminary an infection, what the researchers did discover was that the immune cells behaved as in the event that they have been nonetheless preventing off a viral an infection. About 50 p.c of the cognitively impaired individuals confirmed sluggish enchancment after two years. The individuals whose immune cells mounted an interferon response — a pathway utilized by the immune system to combat viruses — confirmed cognitive enchancment. ‘,’ Hu stated. ‘.’”

Prevention

On private threat evaluation:

Superstar Watch

“Neil Younger Explains Loopy Horse Tour Cancelation, Says He’s Planning To Return To The Highway With Promise Of The Actual” [Stereogum]. Younger: “‘I used to be doing nice and we have been shifting proper alongside,’ Younger stated. ‘Everyone’s loving the reveals. Then I simply awakened one morning on the bus and I stated, ‘I can’t do that. I gotta cease.’ It was like I felt sick after I considered occurring stage. My physique was telling me, ‘You gotta cease.’ So I listened to my physique. Then it will get into all of the authorized issues: ‘You bought this, you bought that, folks purchased tickets, they did this, they did that.’ I perceive that. What issues to me is the artwork of taking part in, and the music. That’s what issues. That’s what folks cherished. That’s what they arrive to see. But when that’s not there, me going is just not occurring. My physique informed me to not do it.’” • Advantageous so far as it goes, and extra trustworthy than most, however why not fear about infecting the followers?

Elite Maleficence

CDC won’t or can not suppose by way of the results of the truth that #CovidIsAirborne, considered one of which is safety must be layered, Swiss Cheese-style:

All of the layers have to be advocated for, and the final precept defined.

Sadly, all docs are usually not like IM Doc:

Union management betrays employees, movie at 11:

Social Norming

The whinging about so-called lockdowns continues to appall:

* * *

TABLE 1: Day by day Covid Charts

Wastewater
This week[1] CDC August 20: Last Week[2] CDC (until next week):

Variants [3] CDC August 17 Emergency Room Visits[4] CDC August 17

Hospitalization
★ New York[5] New York State, data August 27: National [6] CDC August 10:

Positivity
National[7] Walgreens August 20: Ohio[8] Cleveland Clinic August 17:

Travelers Data
Positivity[9] CDC July 29: Variants[10] CDC July 29:

Deaths
Weekly Deaths vs. % Positivity [11]CDC August 10: Weekly Deaths vs. ED Visits [12]CDC August 10:

LEGEND

1) ★ for charts new today; all others are not updated.

2) For a full-size/full-resolution image, Command-click (MacOS) or right-click (Windows) on the chart thumbnail and “open image in new tab.”

NOTES

[1] (CDC) This week’s wastewater map, with hot spots annotated. Keeps spreading.

[2] (CDC) Last week’s wastewater map.

[3] (CDC Variants) KP.* very popular. XDV.1 flat.

[4] (ER) Worth noting Emergency Department use is now on a par with the first wave, in 2020.

[5] (Hospitalization: NY) Again, an uptick, but the state as a whole is still down. Makes me wonder if there’s something happending at New York airports. Let’s watch carefully. (The New York city area has form; in 2020, as the home of two international airports (JFK and EWR) it was an important entry point for the virus into the country (and from thence up the Hudson River valley, as the rich sought to escape, and then around the country through air travel.)

Lambert here: Since things are bad out on the West Coast, I went looking for California hospitalization data to compare with New York’s, and found this: “Due to changes in reporting requirements for hospitals, CDPH is no longer including hospitalization data on the CDPH dashboard. CDPH remains committed to monitoring the severe outcomes of COVID-19 and influenza, including the impact on hospitals. CDC’s National Healthcare Safety Network (NHSN) will remain open to accept data, and CDC and CDPH strongly encourage all facilities to continue reporting.” Thanks, Mandy!

[6] (Hospitalization: CDC). The visualization suppresses what is, in percentage terms, a significant increase.

[7] (Walgreens) Fiddling and diddling.

[8] (Cleveland) Jumping.

[9] (Travelers: Positivity) Up. Those sh*theads at CDC have changed the chart so that it doesn’t even run back to 1/21/23, as it used to, but now starts 1/1/24. There’s also no way to adjust the time range. CDC really doesn’t want you to be able to take a historical view of the pandemic, or compare one surge to another. In an any case, that’s why the shape of the curve has changed.

[10] (Travelers: Variants) The new variant in China, XDV.1, is not showing up here.

[11] Deaths low, but positivity up.

[12] Deaths low, ED up.

Stats Watch

Employment Situation: “United States Initial Jobless Claims” [Trading Economics]. “The number of people claiming unemployment benefits in the US fell by 2,000 from the previous week to 231,000 on the period ending August 24th, in line with market expectations of 232,000. Despite this decrease, the figure remained well above the averages seen earlier this year, reinforcing the ongoing trend of a softening labor market, as highlighted by the July jobs report and the significant downward revision to nonfarm payrolls for the year ending in March.”

GDP: “United States GDP Growth Rate” [Trading Economics]. “Real gross domestic product (GDP) in the US grew at an annual rate of 3.0% in the second quarter of 2024, up from 2.8% in the initial estimate and 1.4% in the first quarter. The upward revision was mainly due to increased consumer spending (2.9% vs 2.3% earlier reported).”

Profits: “United States Corporate Profits” [Trading Economics]. “Corporate profits in the US rose by 1.7% from the previous period to $2,774 trillion in the second quarter of 2024, rebounding from the 2.7% decline in the earlier quarter, according to a preliminary estimate. The rebound was led by the bounce in undistributed profits (5.6% vs -11.6% in Q1) amid the recovery for net cash flow with inventory valuation adjustment (3.3% vs -2.9%).” • Whatever that means.

* * *

Retail: “Amazon is using my grocery purchases to sell me prescription drugs” [Vox]. “he weirdest thing happened to me recently. I ordered some groceries on Amazon Fresh. When you check out, Amazon recommends more things you might like to buy, usually related to your purchase. But this time, Amazon offered up ‘Treatments for High Cholesterol’ along with a link for an Amazon One Medical consultation as well as links to prescription medications. That’s weird, because my doctor and my wife are the only people who know about my cholesterol numbers. They’re pretty good, too! But there are certainly data points, including my age, my food preferences, and my past purchases, maybe even news stories I’ve read elsewhere on the web, that might suggest I’d be a good candidate for a statin, the type of cholesterol-lowering medication Amazon recommended to me.” • Ah, statins.

Tech: “Judges Rule Big Tech’s Free Ride on Section 230 Is Over” [Matt Stoller, BIG]. The deck: “Algorithms are no longer a Get out of Jail free card. The Third Circuit ruled that TikTok must stand trial for manipulating children into harming themselves. The business model of big tech is over.” • Big if true.

Tech: “I spent an evening on a fictitious web” [Paul Kinlan]. Read the bio first: “I lead the Chrome Developer Relations team at Google.” Now read the post and imagine what to means for humans who actually create the content harvested by AI thieves.

Tech: “X caught blocking links to NPR, claiming the news site may be ‘unsafe’” [Tech Crunch]. “X, the Elon Musk-owned platform formerly known as Twitter, is marking some links to news organization NPR’s website as ‘unsafe’ when users click through to read the latest story about an altercation between a Trump campaign staffer and an Arlington National Cemetery employee. The warning being displayed is typically applied to malicious links, like those containing malware, and other types of misleading content or spam. However, in this case, the web page being blocked is an NPR news report, raising questions about whether or not Musk’s X is actively trying to stop the news story from spreading.” • News report, or dogpile? Hard to tell these days…

* * *

Today’s Fear & Greed Index: 52 Neutral (previous close: 52 Neutral) [CNN]. One week ago: 51 (Neutral). (0 is Extreme Fear; 100 is Extreme Greed). Last updated Aug 28 at 12:57:20 PM ET.

Gallery

I don’t know:

I suppose may view the tree as having been flattened onto the canvas, fairly like a Mercator projection, however I believe apple bushes needs to be spherical (so name me a Philistine).

Information of the Wired

I’m not wired as we speak.

* * *

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AM writes: “Hydrangeas in full force.”

* * *

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